Follow Up: Communion items found but not returned

Updated 10:17 am, Monday, October 15, 2012

TROY — Two men believed by police to have burglarized St. John's Episcopal Church in April are in jail, but not for theft at the church.

Joseph Plouffe, 32, of 25th Street, Watervliet, and James Zaremski, 30, of Holland Avenue in Albany, were charged with third-degree grand larceny by police in New Haven, Conn., for having items missing from the church in their possession and attempting to pawn them.

Plouffe is imprisoned in Connecticut, and Zaremski is incarcerated in New York state.

Meanwhile, St. John's is waiting to get back its stolen communion service, according to its pastor, the Rev. Steve Schlossberg.

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Taken from St. John's sanctuary at 146 First St. were two chalices (goblets), two patens (small plates), one cruet (a vessel), one collection plate, two lavaboes (which hold water for the washing of hands), one ciborium (a container for the host at Communion).

The pieces, some of them dating back to the 1930s, had been set out for use in Sunday services when they were stolen.

Troy detectives were able to track the stolen items through pawn shops in Colonie and Albany and finally to New Haven where the two were arrested.

Plouffe is in Connecticut's Niantic Annex serving an eight-month sentence, according to Connecticut state courts. He was sentenced July 31 for third-degree larceny in the attempt to pawn the church items.

The Connecticut charges were dropped against Zaremski, who was extradited to New York. A spokeswoman for Albany County District Attorney David Soares said Zaremski was sentenced to a 2-6 year prison term for third-degree grand larceny after violating his drug court requirements. The charges stem from a 2010 incident. Zaremski is in Riverview State Correctional Facility near Ogdensburg.

Schlossberg said the congregation has put the theft behind it. He said security cameras had been installed.

"We haven't gotten our stuff back," Schlossberg said. "It's still in the possession of the police department in New Haven."

Albany County prosecutors also submitted their case in writing to the five-judge panel, which did not hear oral arguments.

In November 2010, a jury took about 2 1/2 hours to find Nehma guilty of the attempted rape, which took place on Nov. 21, 2009, at about 3:30 a.m.

Nehma was found guilty of hitting the woman in the face, forcing her to the ground, tearing open her pants and trying to rape her as she screamed for help in a desolate area next to the theater at 111 N. Pearl St. The woman, who had been at two nearby bars, escaped. She said she believed that Nehma followed her from one of the bars.

Nehma was arrested on Dec. 5, 2009, after two bouncers from Bayou Cafe recognized him as the person who had snapped photographs of women earlier in the night. After the bouncers contacted police, the victim identified Nehma as her attacker. DNA matching Nehma was found under the woman's fingernails.

Nehma, who arrived in the United States the prior May as a United Nations refugee, had been sponsored by the First Unitarian Society congregation in Schenectady. He needed an interpreter for the trial.

Nehma's trial lawyer, Kathy Manley, argued the woman was intoxicated and that no one witnessed the incident. She had said Nehma had been working to get into school to become a barber.